Germany
has become the first European nation to vote to guarantee
animal rights in its constitution. A majority of lawmakers
in the Bundestag voted on Friday to add and animals
to a clause that obliges the state to respect and protect
the dignity of humans.

The main impact of the measure will be to restrict the use
of animals in experiments. In the end 543 lawmakers in Germanys
lower house of parliament voted in favour of giving animals
constitutional rights. Nineteen voted against it and 15 abstained.

The vote is expected to be approved by the Bundesrat upper
house this summer. Article 20a of the German Basic Law will
then read: The state takes responsibility for protecting
the natural foundations of life and animals in the interest
of future generations.

The issue had been keenly debated among German politicians
for almost 10 years. Animals in Germany already are protected
through legislation defining the conditions in which they
can be held in captivity, but activists claimed it did not
go far enough to control the use of animals in research.

With the new measure, the federal constitutional court will
have to weigh animals rights against other entrenched
rights, like those to conduct research or practice religion.
This could translate bring tighter restrictions on the use
of animals for testing cosmetics or non prescription drugs.

Consumer Affairs Minister Renate Kunast, a member of the environmentalist
Greens party that has lobbied for many years to bring animal
rights into the constitution, welcomed the change as ground
breaking, but emphasised it would not diminish human rights.

People remain the most important, Kunast said.

Conservative parliament members had previously opposed the
constitutional changes, arguing that it could put the interests
of animals before those of humans and be particularly damaging
to Germanys research industry.

Alternatives

Animal
rights activists say they will use the constitutional changes
to try and end to what they say are unduly long transport
routes for animals.

Lawmakers said the government will also look at targeting
more research funding to projects that seek alternatives to
using animals for conducting experiments.

A widely criticised ruling by the constitutional court in
January, authorising the traditional Islamic slaughter of
animals without use of anaesthetic, lent new momentum to the
animal rights movement. The court had ruled that religious
freedoms were explicitly protected under the Basic Law while
animal rights were not.

There is no indication that the new animal rights laws will
have any impact on Germanys Fighting Dogs
legislation, either at Federal or Regional States level. However,
certain areas of the dog legislation could now be in direct
conflict with the new animal rights legislation , such as
the short leash and muzzle restrictions, and the
definition that some breeds should have non contact with other
animals or human beings.

The breed-specific bans will not be affected by the new laws,
as this matter is due to be resolved by a ruling in the German
High Courts later this year.